New Hampshire's population has been booming for decades, but researchers said the growth rate is slowing down, and that could have a dramatic effect on the state.

The state's population growth has in large part been fueled by families moving from places such as Massachusetts. Salem resident Susan Collins said her family moved to the Granite State in the late 1980s, and many of her neighbors did the same.

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"I think the cost of living is cheaper," she said. "I definitely know that, from going to the Cape. I look at food. I look at gas."

But that trend seems to be changing, researchers said.

"New Hampshire has always benefited from a significant inflow of people coming to it, and that inflow has slowed down over the course of the last decade," said demographer Ken Johnson of the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute.

The growth rate is the slowest it has been in 50 years.

"The rate of growth in New Hampshire has slowed down quite dramatically in the last decade, compared to what it had been in the last 40 years before then," Johnson said.

Johnson said the state's population grew by 180,000 in the 1980s, 120,000 in the 1990s and 80,000 in the past decade. The recession is apparently playing a huge role in whether families decide to move.

"The problem is with the recession," Johnson said. "People have been frozen in place, essentially, by the recession."

Homes can't be sold, and families are reluctant to take up work in New Hampshire. Johnson said the trend could have a major effect on the state because relocated families tend to be better educated and bring with them more income than average, boosting the economy.

Researchers said it remains to be seen whether the trend will reverse when the recession ends.

"This is a unique pattern," said Steve Norton of the Center for Public Policy. "We haven't seen it in New Hampshire at this magnitude in the 100 years we have data for."

Norton said the slowing migration also opens up a new concern: The state's population is also getting older.

"There are two sides to the coin of aging," he said. "One is we're seeing an increase in the number of people over age 65, but also we're seeing a decrease in the number of people under 18."

Families that aren't moving to New Hampshire also aren't bringing in children, throwing off the state's average age.

Jeremy Hitchcock is the CEO of Manchester Internet infrastructure company, Dyn. He said many of the company's employees are recruited from local colleges.

"We hire a lot of younger, lesser experienced people," he said. "We're in business models that haven't existed before. We're working on technology that's really new."

An aging population is a major concern that doesn't exactly fit Hitchcock's formula, Hitchcock said.

"It hasn't changed anything quite yet," he said. "I think this is something that in the coming years is a trend that we think about, where the number of people that are going to be graduating from school is going to be reduced."

Researchers said the effects of the demographic shift will be felt by everyone in New Hampshire. The older the average age, the more resources that will have to be pumped into health care and Medicare at taxpayer expense.

It could also mean less money spent on education because the younger generation isn't growing as rapidly.

Demographers said the trend could reverse, but they're trying to determine exactly what will happen if it doesn't.